Market Farming

[John Hendrickson <jhendric AT wisc.edu>]

Thanks for the great posts on pricing.  Could you please explain your 
system for quantifying harvest/packing costs?

-John

At 12:01 PM 5/13/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> I hire people to do farmers markets for me; I pay them 20%-25% of
> sales, depending on the distance.  They generally drive my trucks and
> use my fuel.  I sell a lot of the same items to grocery stores that I
> sell at farmers markets; generally my grocery store price is about 1/2
> of my retail farmers market price.  Generally, grocery stores mark my
> products up about 100%, so the retail prices are about the same.
> Therefore, I end up with a bit more when selling at a farmers markets.
> That better price helps offset the risk of bringing home unsold product
> from farmers markets.
>
> It is easiest for me to quantify harvest/packing costs on crops that
> have long continuous harvests: okra, asparagus, blackberries, peppers,
> spinach.  Crops that can be stored and slowly sold at farmers markets
> (potatoes, onions) have their own attraction.